178 THE ELEPHANT. 



The mode adopted by the Batongas, and the Ban- 

 yai on the Zambesi, is somewhat like the foregoing. 

 " They erect stages/' says Livingstone, " on high trees 

 overhanging the path by which the elephants come, and 

 then use a large spear, with a handle nearly as thick as 

 a man's wrist, and four or five feet long. When the 

 animal comes beneath, they throw the spear, and if it 

 enters between the ribs above, as the blade is at least 

 twenty inches long by two broad, the motion of the 

 handle, as it is aided by knocking against the trees, 

 makes frightful gashes within, and soon causes death. 

 They kill them also by means of a spear inserted in a 

 beam of wood, which, being suspended on the branch 

 of a tree by a cord attached to a latch fastened in the 

 path, and intended to be struck by the animal's foot, 

 leads to the fall of the beam, and, the spear being 

 poisoned, causes death in a few hours." 



X. 



THE attack with the javelin, in the open country, 

 seems to be more worthy of the true hunter. Living- 

 stone thus describes it : "! had retired from the noise 

 to take an observation among some rocks of laminated 

 girt, when I beheld an elephant and her calf at the end 

 of a valley, about two miles distant. The calf was 



